FARM AND GARDEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 August 1921, Page 10

FARM AND GARDEN.

FEED THE COWS. IMPROVE THE GRASS LAND. SUPPLEMENT WITH FODDER CROPS. ADVICE TO N.Z. DAIRYMEN, In his lecture before the RuakuraFarm School, on “The Feeding of Dairy Cows,” Mr. A. H. Cockayne, the Chief Government Biologist, made extensive reference to the main supplementary cow feeds. He divided them into the following classes:— Hay, ensilage, roots, green forages, grain. The lecturer added:—ln many cases the same crop can be utilised in a variety of ways, such as for soiling, silage, hay, etc., and certain crops are superior to others in this respect. I propose here to review briefly the main crops that come within the scope of the above enumeration. HAY. The main hays are permanent pasture hay, temporary pasture hay, lucerne hay, cereal and tare hay, and certain special crop hays, such as Sudan grass. In New Zealand by far the most important hay is that derived from permanent pasture, and about 100,000 acres of grass land is annually shut up for hay production. This gives about one acre of hay for every ten cows in the Dominion, or between 3 and 4 cwt. of hay per cow. This is clearly inadequate, and even in dairying districts like the Waikato the position is bad in this respect, no more than 4 cwt. of hay being available for each cow. An adequate hay provision is essential both for the proper winter -feeding of cows, and aiao to supplement the very watery grass feed available in the early spring. I hold that half a ton of hay per cow is little enough, and unless plenty of roots or other supplementary feed is available, an allowance of half a ton of hay is not sufficient. Our statistics therefore indicate that two or three times nwre hay than is at present produced is necessary to put dairying on a proper economical basis. Personally I am greatly against hay production on long rotation and permanent grass land, as I consider the practice is extremely detrimental to the maintenance of such grass land. Paspalum is an exception, and the haying of paspalum grass land is a sound practice. Temporary pastures of Italian rye grass and clovers are excellent for hay, and unless lucerne can be succesafuly grown temporary pastures for hay production should be a feature of every dairy farm. Whenever lucerne can be successfully and easily grown that crop should provide all the hay required, but where not successful special hay crops, especially cereals and tares should be grown to a far greater extent than they are at present. Cereals and tares for hay production may be either autumn or spring sown —when autumn sown they are often extremely useful feeding off in the winter, and a portion of the spring sown crop frequently becomes of intense value for soiling when dry conditions obtain before the soft turnip crop is ready. It can therefore be laid down that in districts where lucerne is not successfully grown, cereals and tares should always be largely grown. ENSILAGE. Until recently I, in common with many farmers, held the opinion that ensilage as a staple supplementary feed for dairy cows was too expensive to produce.' On this point I now have quite an open mind, and the economics of ensilage production and utilisation 'require to be carefully studied in New Zealand before any definite decision can be given. In America ensilage is the most important of all supplementary feeds for dairy cowg, but, of course, conditions there are vastly different to New Zealand ones. What, however, does impress me with ensilage in America is the fact that silage is rapidly taking the place of green cut forage crops (soiling). The position that the American farmer adopts is that ensilage is always ready just when it is wanted, and no matter how skilful a farmer may be, his provision for forage crops for soiling during the summer may come to nought through unfavorable weather conditions. His soiling crop may not be ready just when required, or if ready there may be an abundance-*of grass, and it is not really wanted. Personally I am of opinion that if ensilage finally does become important in dairy farm management here, it will be a summer supplementary feed, and not as a winter feed. Tn New Zealand ha.v and roots must always remain the staple winter feeds, hay and swedes for preference, and where swedes cannot be grown, mangolds or carrots will have to take their place. Tn many districts, however, the successful growing of soft turnips for summer fed, especially when quite small dairy farms become general, may not be permanently feasible owing to disease, and unless lucerne can be grown it is more than possible that ensilage will take their place rather than special green forages such as millets, vetches, Sudap grass and the like. The superior yield possible from maize is not satisfactory a*j a feed owing to the fact that it is not always ready when wanted, and also to the fact that owing to its small percentage of nitrogenous material it is too unbalanced a food for milk production. On the other hand maize ensilage supplemented with crushed grain would prove admirable for feeding when pastures dry up in the summer. Where lucerne is grown the first cut of the

season, owing to the weather conditions, must generally be made into ensilage, and in this connection the mixing l of a straw stack with the lucerne is an a.dmirable practice. Lucerne ensilage

may be used either for winter or summer feeding, but would; be generally used in the winter, ?s thci summer production of lucerne provides an abundance of soiling material for summer use. 1 ROOTS. Roots should occupy aii important position in the supplementary feeding of dairy cows, and «wedew mangolds, carrots and soft turnips al? all valuable, especially from the pilnt of view that they produce more fet|l units per acre than any of our other crops. Wliere swedes can be successfully grown, they should, with hay, provide the main winter feed. Apart from their high yield, the fact that they can be gi’azed off renders them the cheapest crop that can be grown. They, however, cannot be used when the cows come into milk, and as the yield from pastures is often low at that time mangolds or carrots must then take their place in combination with hay feeding. In districts where swedes canot be grown, mangolds or carrots must take their place for both winter and spring 'feeding, and as they are both dear and troublesome to produce and ' make use of, dairy farmers who cannot grow swedes may find increasing their supply of hay more feasible than any extensive growing of mangolds or carrots. For summer supplementary feeding the soft turnip stands out supreme, and lucky indeed* is the New Zealand dairy farmer that this crop can be so easily and cheaply grown in many districts. As I have mentioned it is probable that disease may sooner or later limit soft turnip growing in many districts, but provided they can be successfully produced the soft turnip must become the most important of all summer supplementary feeds for dairy cows. In the feeding of soft turqips to milking cows several points are of importance. Firstly, the crop must never be fed off on the ground as can be. adopted with swedes when feeding dry cows. Secondly, each cow must now be fed with more than 40 to 691 b of soft turnips per day, and feeding must take place immediately after milking, and, thirdly, it is advisable to suplement soft turnips feeding with some green forage such as lucerne, vetches millet, or the like. If these precautions are taken the danger of milk tainting is negligible, as has been abundantly proved in Taranaki, where the soft turnip is the standard summer supplementary feed.. The fact that with a judicious selection of varieties, a continuous supply of mature roots can be secured from the middle of January onwards is of special significance in estimating the value of soft turnips. GREEN FORAGES. With the exception of lucerne which can if neeetesary supply the whole of the extra summer requirements, I am not greatly in favor of green-cut forage crops. Mainly from the point of view that the feed unit return per acre is often small. During recent years Japanese millet has become very popular partly because it may,if necessary. , be grazed and partly because it does fairly well on ground insufficiently cultivated for the maximum production of root crops. On farms where grassland completely fails during the summer, green-cut forages and especially forages that can be grazed are often desired, and in the Auckland province special paspalum paddocks for summer feeding are probably a sounder proposition than arc many green-cut forages, or any attempt to produce grazable forages. I do not consider that the Auckland farmer realises the monetary importance in dairying that paspalum is destined to play as years go on. In certain districts where pas-

palum grassland will finally be the dominant grassland special summer provision of extra feed will not be required, and instead of the August-Decemlber period being the one when grassland alone will be sufficient to enable maximum production to be realised it will be the January-May ope when more than sufficient grass will be available. I quite foresee that the production of supplementary food for dairy farmers in North Auckland will be very largely concerned with adequate provision for the spring period of lactation and for this purpose hay and roots should well meet the case. Autumn sown forage such as oats, bareley and the like, although useful under certain conditions for winter and early spring feeding cannot compare in economy of production with root crops and unless otherwise the ground would remain idle. I do not advocate any extensive adoption of such types of cropping. GRAIN.

Supplementary grain feeding is little adopted in New Zealand for the feeding of dairy cows, but I am strongly in favor of the growing of a small amount of certain concentrates such a$ oats, barley, peas or beans for feeding during the first month or so after cows come to milk. Such feed provision,, especially of the last two crops, is probably sounder than buying bran, a concentrate that is popular with a good many dairy farmers. In concluding Mr. Cockayne said:— In conclusion I should just like to say that I feel thqt the time for relying so much on pasture has gone by, and that the really adequate feeding of dairy cows can only be secured by a thorough recognition of this fact by New .Zealand dairy farmers. By all means improve as far as it is practically possible the production from grassland. •Any such methods, however, will not enable one to secure the maximum return from his herd. This can only be done by -adequately supplementing the feed from pastures by means of specially grown fodder crops. This address contains nothing new’, but is merely an attempt to show that the feeding of dairy cows to the limit of their production is economically sound. Provided that the system of underfeeding cows is abandoned the New Zealand farmer can face low prices with perfect confidence, and if both adequate feeding and herd improvement is generally adopted, dairying will not only become the paramount industry, but will make New Zealand the premier dairying country of the world.